Apparatus for supplementing the operation of the ribbon selecting and backspacing means of a typewriter

ABSTRACT

A typewriter has two separate ribbons, at least one of which has two printing fields. An attachment for the typewriter has keys, or other manually operable members, selects any desired one of the three ribbon fields and at the same time backspaces the typewriter. The aforesaid arrangement permits one of the ribbon fields to be a &#39;&#39;&#39;&#39;correcting&#39;&#39;&#39;&#39; field so that the typewriter may be easily operated as a correcting typewriter. A separate feature is that part of the attachment may be in the form of a cassette.

United States Patent [191 Wolowitz APPARATUS FOR SUPPLEMENTING THEOPERATION OF THE RIBBON SELECTING AND BACKSPACING MEANS OF A TYPEWRITER[76] Inventor: William H. Wolowitz, 6905 Persimmon Tree Road, Bethesda,Md. 20034 [22] Filed: Aug. 12, 1974 [21] Appl. No.: 496,602

[52] US. Cl 197/181; 197/91 [51] Int. C1. B41J 29/16 [58] Field ofSearch 197/151, 156, 181, 91, 197/ 172, 180

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,149,711 9/1964 Wolowitz197/91 3,154,183 10/1964 Wolowitz 3,204,745 9/1965 Wolowitz 3,204,7469/1965 Wolowitz 197/91 Dec. 23, 1975 3,270,852 9/1966 Fondiller 197/913,397,767 8/1968 Hobbs 197/156 X 3,595,362 7/1971 Wolowitz 197/91 X3,729,081 4/1973 Ozimek 197/181 X 3,799,316 3/1974 Davidge et al....197/181 3,834,512 9/1974 Haugen...; 197/181 Primary Examiner-Wm. H.Grieb Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Hall & Myers [57] ABSTRACT A typewriterhas two separate ribbons, at least one of which has two printing fields.An attachment for the typewriter has keys, or other manually operablemembers, selects any desired one of the three ribbon fields and at thesame time backspaces the typewriter. The aforesaid arrangement permitsone of the ribbon fields to be a correcting field so that the typewritermay be easily operated as a correcting typewriter.

A separate feature is that part of the attachment may be in the form ofa cassette.

8 Claims, 10 Drawing Figures US. Patent Dec.23, 1975 Sheetlof3 3,927,749

L 33 %M% HO US. Patent Dec.23, 1975 Sheet20f3 3,927,749

B 4 Q 4 G F m 0 4 4 o 3 1 I l l l i II E or w 2 4 A 4 4 A m w F m d 4llllllll l 3 5 3 5 no 2 2 MW U.S. Patent Dec.23, 1975 Sheet0f3 3,927,749

APPARATUS FOR SUPPLEMENTING THE OPERATION OF THE RIBBON SELECTING ANDBACKSPACING MEANS OF A TYPEWRITER RELATED APPLICATION This applicationis related to my prior copending application Ser. No. 470,476, filed May16, 1974, entitled Attachment for Typewriters.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION It is now old and well known to employ atypewriter with two ribbon fields, one of which is made of correcting orerasing material, and keys for selecting either of the ribbons and atthe same time backspacing the typewriter. For example, see my US. Pat.No. 3,149,711, issued Set. 22, 1964, for Error-Correcting Typewriter",3,154,183, issued Oct. 27, 1964, for Ribbon Shift for Error-ObliteratingTypewriters," 3,204,745, issued Sept. 7, 1965, for Error CorrectingTypewriter," and 3,595,362, issued July 27, 1971, for TypewriterBackspace and Ribbon-Field Control.

However, there are some typewriters with two separate and totallyindependent ribbons, one of which may be a dual color ribbon. Forexample, one ribbon may be a carbon ribbon and the other may be a nylonribbon, one half of which may be a black printing field and the otherhalf of which may be a white or erasing field. For making preliminarytyped drafts of documents, the black nylon ribbon field may be used, andthe carbon ribbon may be used for final copies of important documents.

It is an object of this invention to provide an improved way of applyingthe teachings of the aforesaid prior patents to a typewriter havingthree ribbon fields.

It is another object of this invention to provide an attachment forexisting typewriters which enables the typist to convert the typewriterinto a self-correcting one without impairing the ability of the typistto continue the unimpaired use of the backspace key and the means forselecting the printing ribbon field of the existing'typewriter.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention contemplates the addition of atleast two keys, or other manually operable elements, to a conventionaltypewriter. Each key operates the backspace means of the typewriter andalso selects a particular field of the three or more fields available.

Since normally the typist wishes to use only one ribbon field forwriting and one such field for correcting, the invention in itspreferred form contemplates only two keys, one of which selects thecorrecting field. The other key selects the ribbon field to be used forwriting. Since there are at least two fields that may be used forwriting, the invention contemplates manually operable means to controlthe travel of said other key and thereby determine which of the two ormore writing fields it will select.

The apparatus comprising my invention may be in the form of anattachment for existing typewriters. It may be attached in such a mannerthat it does not impair operation, by the typist, of the backspace keyof the typewriter or of the selection of any desired printing ribbonfield by operation of the ribbon field selector of the typewriter.

Furthermore, in one form of the invention, the keys and certain otherparts of the attachment may be embodied in a casette that may be easilyinterchanged with or replaced by another casette, to enable the typistto continue to use keys in the same location to achieve the sameultimate operations even if the ribbon fields are interchanged.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a top view ofa conventionaltypewriter with the attachment comprising my invention added thereto.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the attachment along line 2-2 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is the same side view shown in FIG.'2, but illustrating theattachment as it would appear during depression of key 28.

FIG. 4A is a detailed top view of the forward portion of the attachmentshown in FIGS. 2 and 3 in one position of lever 40.

FIG. 4B is a detailed top view of the forward portion of the attachmentshown in FIGS. 2 and 3 in the other position of lever 40.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the attachment for the typewriter ofFIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is a side view similar to the side view of FIG. 2, but shows amodified form of the attachment.

FIG. 7 is a detailed view of the apparatus that may be added to the leftend of the apparatus shown in FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a modified form of the attachment.

FIG. 9 is a top view of the keys in astill further modification of theattachment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION In FIG. 1, the typewriter has thefollowing conventional parts: frame 10, platen 11, type bars 12, writingkeys 13, carbon ribbon 14, carbon ribbon take-up spool 16, carbon ribbonfeed spool 15, two color ribbon 17, ribbon spools 18 and 19 for ribbon17, backspace key 20, multi-position ribbon selector 21 which operatescontrol lever 22 to select the desired ribbon, and pivot 23 for lever 22and selector 21. The indicating mechanism 24 indicates to the typistwhich of the available ribbon portions is in use. The ribbon selector 21has three printing positions and one stencil position. The mostcounterclockwise of these four positions (FIG. 2) selects the carbonribbon l4 and is hereinafter referred to as the first position. Thesecond posi tion is about 15 clockwise of the first position and selectsthe lower half of ribbon 17. The third position (FIG. 3) is about 10 to15 clockwise of the second position, that is, the most clockwise of thethree printing positions, and selects the upper half of ribbon 17. Thefourth position is still further clockwise of the third position and isa non-printing position and may be used when the typist wishes to cut astencil. This is the particular arrangement in the typewriter selectedfor the purpose of this description and the order of ribbon selection inother typewriters may well be different.

When indicating mechansim 24 has rotated as far as possiblecounterclockwise, to the position shown in FIG. 2 (referred to herein asthe first position), it has moved lever 22 forward (toward the typist)as far as possible, thus causing the carbon ribbon 14 to be raised totyping position by the ribbon vibrator when one of the writing keys 13is depressed. The ribbon 17 is not operated by its ribbon vibrator upondepression of a writing key 13 when ribbon selector 21 is in the mostcounterclockwise of its three printing positions. 1f now the ribbonselector 21 is rotated clockwise to its middle (second) position, thelever 22 moves rearward (away from the typist) and in this position theribbon vibrator for the carbon ribbon 14 is deactivated and does notraise the carbon ribbon when a writing key 13 is depressed, but theribbon vibrator for ribbon 17, which was previously deactivated, becomesoperative and raises the ribbon 17 the maximum amount when a writing key13 is depressed. Thus, when selector 21 is in its second position, thelower half of two color ribbon 17 is in use. When the ribbon selector 21is rotated further clockwise to the angular position shown in FIG. 3,the lever 22 is moved further in a rearward direction and assumes aposition (referred to herein as third position) wherein the ribbonvibrator for carbon ribbon 14 remains deactivated and the ribbonvibrator for ribbon 17 moves that ribbon, when a writing key 13 isdepressed, so that the top half of the ribbon is used.

Everything described in this paragraph is old and well known and is inuse in typewriters commercially available.

My improvement resides in the addition of parts 25 to 45 to the priorart arrangement described in the immediately preceding paragraph.

Lever 25, which is pivoted at 26 and biased for counterclockwiserotation by spring 27, has a key 28 which permits the front end of lever25 to be depressed causing protuberance 29 to engage ribbon selector 21and rotate it to its most clockwise (third) printing position. Thismoves lever 22 rearward, activating the ribbon vibrator for ribbon 17selects the top half of ribbon 17 for use, and deactivates the ribbonvibrator for carbon ribbon 14. At the same time the free end 30 of lever25 engages arm 31 which is attached to rod 32 which is mounted forclockwise (FIG. 2) rotary motion about its axis causing the right handend 33 of this rod to depress the lever 20a that carries the backspacekey 20. Thus depression of key 28 operates lever 22 to activate theribbon vibrator for ribbon.l7 (particularly the top half thereof), andalso backspaces the typewriter. Thereafter, spring 27 returns lever 25to its normal position as shown in FIG. 2.

The rod 32 is mounted for rotation in bearings 33a.

The lever 34 carried key 35 and is pivoted for rotation about rod 26. Ithas a depending arm 36 which engages arm 31 and rotates rod 32 tobackspace the typewriter when the key 35 is depressed. Lever 34 also hasa depending rod 37 which engages ribbon selector 21 and rotates itcounterclockwise when key 35 is depressed. This selects ribbon 14 anddeactivates the ribbon vibrator for ribbon 17. If lever 40, which ispivotally mounted on stationary bracket 39 at 41, is in the positionshown in FIG. 4A, that is, if the lever 40 is in contact with stop pin43 and out of contact with stop pin 44 so that the arm 42 is out of thepath of the ribbon selector 21, then the depression of key 35 effectsmaximum counterclockwise rotation of ribbon selector 21 (to its firstposition), thus selecting the carbon ribbon 14 and deactivating theribbon vibrator for ribbon 17. Return spring 48 returns lever 34 to itsnormal position.

If, however, the lever 40 has been rotated to the position shown in FIG.4B, and the ribbon selector is in the full clockwise position of FIG. 3,when key 35 is depressed, the ribbon selector 21 is movedcounterclockwise only to its second position thus selecting the bottomhalf of ribbon 17 as well as rotating rod 32 to depress the lever 20a tobackspace the typewriter.

The lever 34 has a return spring 48, and a stationary stop-bar 49 limitsthe upward movement of levers 25 and 34 so as to position keys 28 and 35in their normal positions.

If it is desired to use the above-described apparatus as aself-correcting typewriter, the two-color ribbon 17 may have a white (orcamouflaging) upper half and any desired color on its lower half, forexample red.

If now one desires to write with the carbon ribbon 14, the key 35 isdepressed, or alternatively the typist manually moves ribbon selector 21to its farthermost counterclockwise (first) position (with lever 40 inthe position shown in FIG. 4A). If the typist makes an error, key 28 isdepressed to not only backspace the typewriter, but also select thewhite (upper) half of ribbon 17 (third position). If the writing key 13representing the erroneous letter is depressed, the error is erased. Ifnext key 35 is depressed, the typewriter is again backspaced and normaltyping with carbon ribbon 14 may proceed.

If it is desired to use the lower (red) half of ribbon 17 for normalwriting, the ribbon selector 21 is moved to its second position, andlever 40 is rotated to the position shown in FIG. 4B. If the typist thenmakes an error, key 28 is depressed to change the throw of the ribbonvibrator of ribbon 17 to the white (top) half (third position). The key13 representing the erroneous letter is depressed to erase the error.Next key 35 is depressed and this rotates ribbon selector 21counterclockwise until the forward end thereof strikes arm 42 whichstops the ribbon selector 21 in its second position. At the same timerod 32 was rotated to effect backspacing. Normal typing, using the lowerhalf of ribbon 17, may then be resumed.

When lever 40 is switched to the position of FIG. 4B, the ribbonselector 21 is limited to two positions: 1 its most clockwise printing(third) position in which the upper half of ribbon 17 is used, and (2)its second position in which the lower half of ribbon 17 is used. If,therefore, the upper half of ribbon 17 is white and the lower half isblack or red, the typewriter is self-correcting. If while typing withthe lower half of the ribbon, the typist makes an error, the typistpresses key 28 to rotate selector 21 to its most clockwise printing(third) position, thus selecting the white half of the ribbon andbackspacing via parts 30 to 33 inclusive. If now the writing key 13representing the erroneous letter is depressed, the error will beerased. Upon depression of key 35, the ribbon selector 21 will bereturned to its second position, the lower half of ribbon 17 will beactivated and the typewriter will be backspaced. Normal typing maytherefore resume using the lower half of ribbon 17.

FIGS. 6, 7, 8 and 9 illustrate a modified form of the invention, whichenables the invention to be more universal in its application.

In FIG. 6, the key levers 34 and 25 respectively have keys 35 and 28 andare the same as the corresponding keys and levers of FIGS. 1 to 5,except as follows: Instead of having fixed, built-in projections on thekey levers for engaging ribbon selector 21, the lever 34 has holes 60,61, 62 and 63 and the lever 25 has holes 64, 65, 66 and 67. Arms such as68 and 69 of any desired length can be affixed to the key lever at theposition of any of said holes as necessary to produce any desired degreeof rotation of ribbon selector 21 upon the depression of any given key.

Similarly, there is a stop menas for limiting the rotation of ribbonselector 21 at either or both ends of its travel. Just as stop means 40,41, 42, 43 and 44 of FIG. 4A limits the counterclockwise rotation ofribbon selector 21, a similar stop means 70, 71, 72, 73 and 74 limitsthe clockwise rotation of ribbon selector 21 in FIG. 7. In the positionshown in FIG. 7, stop 72 limits clockwise travel of selector 21 to itsthird ribbon position. If stop 72 is moved out of the path of selector21, then selector 21 can continue its clockwise travel to the fourth(stencil) position, if key 28 is depressed, or if selector 21 is movedmanually. In FIG. 7, the handle 70 rotates about pivot 71 to move stoparm 72 in or out of the path of ribbon selector 21, and stop pins 73 and74 limit the angular motion of handle 70 in counterclockwise andclockwise directions respectively.

As shown in FIG. 8, the typewriter may be provided with a socket 80 forreceiving a casette 81 which will hold all of the parts of my attachmentexcept 31, 32, 33 and 33a. The casette 81 holds the parts 4044 which arethe same as the corresponding parts of FIGS. 4A and 4B. The casetteholds at least two key levers 25 and 34 with their respective keys 28and 35 and the rear end of the casette is open to allow levers such as30A to move rearwardly to engage arm 31 which is mounted independentlyof the casette 81. The levers, such as 25, have four holes 64, 65, 66and 67 to permit arms of any desired length to be affixed to the leverfor the purpose of driving ribbon selector 21 to a desired position whena key, such as 28, is depressed. As indicated in FIG. 9, as many as fourkeys with associated key levers, all of which keys and levers are builtaccording to the description of key 28 and lever 25 of FIG. 8, may beemployed in the casette 81. As a result, a very wide range of selectionsmay be made to achieve desired results. For example, in a typewriterhaving two separate ribbons, one of which has two fields and the otherof which has only one field, one of the three fields may be a whitefield for making corrections and the other two fields may be forprinting in black, red or some other color. Two of the keys 90 and 91may be used to shift between the white field and one of the other fieldsand keys 92 and 93 may be used to shift between the white and theremaining field. Any desired permutation or combination can be arrangedby placing the proper length arms such as 68 and 69 in the correct holessuch as 64 to 67. Moreover, proper limits may be placed on the movementof ribbon selector 21 by operating stop arms 40-44 or 70-74.

A spring 82 may hold casette 81 in socket 80.

My attachments of FIGS. 1 to 8 inclusive may be added to existingtypewriters without destroying the ability of the typist to manuallyoperate the backspace key the same as before and without destroying theability of the typist to manually move the ribbon selecting mechanism 21to any printing ribbon field position the same as before. In explanationof the foregoing it is noted that element 33 is located above the keylever 20a of backspace key 20 and therefore will not interfere withdownward travel of lever 20a when the backspace key 20 is depressed.Similarly, if stop means 40-44 and 70-74, are moved to positions outsidethe path of travel of ribbon selector 21, the latter may be freely movedmanually to any desired position. To facilitate this, the underside ofribbon selector 21 projects downwardly from the underside of thetypewriter and may have a roughened surface to permit the typist toeasily move the same.

I claim to have invented:

1. In a printing machine,

printing means including a printing medium having first, second andthird printing fields,

selecting means for selecting which of said three printing fields willbe used at any particular time,

said selecting means being movable in first and second oppositedirections and having at least first, second and third positions towhich it is movable, one for each of said ribbon fields, the second oneof said three positions being a mid-position and the other two positionsbeing in said first and second opposite directions respectively from themid-position,

said printing means including operable means for performing the printingoperation in steps across the object being printed and includingbackspace means for backspacing the operable means one step,

a first key for moving said selecting means in said first direction tosaid first position to select one of said three fields,

means for operating said backspace means when said first key isdepressed, and

means for selecting either said second or said third position of saidselecting means, said means comprising a second key for moving saidselecting means in said second direction 2. A printing machine asdefined in claim 1 including means for operating said backspace meanswhen said second key is depressed.

3. A printing machine as defined in claim 1 in which said selectingmeans and said backspace means are manually operable independently ofsaid control means.

4. A printing machine as defined in claim 3 in which the printing means,the selecting means, the operable means and the backspace means comprisea typewriter,

said two keys comprising an attachment for said typewriter that may beapplied thereto without precluding the typist from manually operatingthe backspace means and without precluding the typist from manuallyoperating said selecting means to select any of the printing ribbonfields.

5. A printing machine as defined in claim 4 in which said two keys aremounted in a casette, and which includes movable means outside thecasette for operating said backspace means, means in the casette which,in response to depression of either key, operates said movable means toin turn operate the backspace means, and means in the casette controlledby said keys for operating said selecting means.

6. A printing machine as defined in claim 1, in which said means forselecting either said second or said third position includes meansoperable by the typist to prevent the selecting means from moving pastthe second position to the third position when the second key isdepressed.

7. An attachment for a typewriter, said typewriter having a keyboard, aribbon selector at one end of the keyboard, and backspace meansincluding a key that forms a part of the keyboard, comprising:

movable means adapted for mounting on the typewriter and which, when somounted, includes a movable element adjacent said ribbon selector andmeans operated by given movement of said ele-' ment for operating thebackspace means,

key is depressed the ribbon-selector is in another ribbon-selectingposition. a

8. An attachment for a typewriter as defined in claim 7, in which saidattachment means comprises means which when attached to the typewriterdoes not preclude the typist from manually operating the backspace keyof the typewriter and also does not preclude the typist from manuallyoperating the ribbon selector to select a desired one of the printingfields of any printing ribbon means that may be on the typewriter.

1. In a printing machine, printing means including a printing mediumhaving first, second and third printing fields, selecting means forselecting which of said three printing fields will be used at anyparticular time, said selecting means being movable in first and secondopposite directions and having at least first, second and thirdpositions to which it is movable, one for each of said ribbon fields,the second one of said three positions being a midposition and the othertwo positions being in said first and second opposite directionsrespectively from the mid-position, said printing means includingoperable means for performing the printing operation in steps across theobject being printed and including backspace means for backspacing theoperable means one step, a first key for moving said selecting means insaid first direction to said first position to select one of said threefields, means for operating said backspace means when said first key isdepressed, and means for selecting either said second or said thirdposition of said selecting means, said means comprising a second key formoving said selecting means in said second direction
 2. A printingmachine as defined in claim 1 including means for operating saidbackspace means when said second key is depressed.
 3. A printing machineas defined in Claim 1 in which said selecting means and said backspacemeans are manually operable independently of said control means.
 4. Aprinting machine as defined in claim 3 in which the printing means, theselecting means, the operable means and the backspace means comprise atypewriter, said two keys comprising an attachment for said typewriterthat may be applied thereto without precluding the typist from manuallyoperating the backspace means and without precluding the typist frommanually operating said selecting means to select any of the printingribbon fields.
 5. A printing machine as defined in claim 4 in which saidtwo keys are mounted in a casette, and which includes movable meansoutside the casette for operating said backspace means, means in thecasette which, in response to depression of either key, operates saidmovable means to in turn operate the backspace means, and means in thecasette controlled by said keys for operating said selecting means.
 6. Aprinting machine as defined in claim 1, in which said means forselecting either said second or said third position includes meansoperable by the typist to prevent the selecting means from moving pastthe second position to the third position when the second key isdepressed.
 7. An attachment for a typewriter, said typewriter having akeyboard, a ribbon selector at one end of the keyboard, and backspacemeans including a key that forms a part of the keyboard, comprising:movable means adapted for mounting on the typewriter and which, when somounted, includes a movable element adjacent said ribbon selector andmeans operated by given movement of said element for operating thebackspace means, and attachment means, adapted to be attached to thetypewriter adjacent said ribbon selector, and including first and secondkeys, said attachment means, when attached to the typewriter adjacentsaid ribbon selector, also including means for operating said movableelement to in turn operate the backspace means when either of said keysis depressed and which insures that after one of said keys is depressedthe ribbon selector is in one ribbon selecting position and when theother key is depressed the ribbon-selector is in anotherribbon-selecting position.
 8. An attachment for a typewriter as definedin claim 7, in which said attachment means comprises means which whenattached to the typewriter does not preclude the typist from manuallyoperating the backspace key of the typewriter and also does not precludethe typist from manually operating the ribbon selector to select adesired one of the printing fields of any printing ribbon means that maybe on the typewriter.